I've been quite mixed over who started what in the Israeli/Palestinian conflict. As in did the Zionist Movement take land by force? Were the people that used to live in modern day Israel forced or coerced out? If they were forced out, were they given reparations? If they weren't forced out, why is there a conflict?

I've heard that since modern day Israel/Palestine was under British rule at the time, it made it okay to force people out of their homes (if they were truly forced)-- but that is completely un-humanitarian. I've never seen any sense in the justification of taking that land simply because ancestors thousands of years ago used to live there. That's like kicking out a tenant to a house saying, "my great grandfather used to live here" to justify it. But then again, I'm probably not getting the full picture here.

I'm quite confused about the whole deal and could not find anything to answer my questions. It would be greatly appreciated if someone could clear it up for me and give me some further reading or sources to look at.

At 8/8/2014 10:16:04 PM, Harper wrote:I've been quite mixed over who started what in the Israeli/Palestinian conflict. As in did the Zionist Movement take land by force? Were the people that used to live in modern day Israel forced or coerced out? If they were forced out, were they given reparations? If they weren't forced out, why is there a conflict?

I've heard that since modern day Israel/Palestine was under British rule at the time, it made it okay to force people out of their homes (if they were truly forced)-- but that is completely un-humanitarian. I've never seen any sense in the justification of taking that land simply because ancestors thousands of years ago used to live there. That's like kicking out a tenant to a house saying, "my great grandfather used to live here" to justify it. But then again, I'm probably not getting the full picture here.

I'm quite confused about the whole deal and could not find anything to answer my questions. It would be greatly appreciated if someone could clear it up for me and give me some further reading or sources to look at.

Thanks in advance.

There were Palestinians who did sell their land to Jewish settlers. However, there were also Zionist paramilitary groups like Irgun and Lehi which committed massacres and used acts of terrorism to scare Palestinians into abandoning their land or for selling it at very cheap prices. Irgun actually helped smuggle thousands of illegal Jewish immigrants into Palestine. Lehi tried to ally itself with fascist Italy and Nazi Germany during the Second World War. Lehi also assassinated British regional officials in Palestine. So to answer your first question, Palestinians were pretty much scared out of some parts of their territory. Others were forced by terrorist groups.

As for what started the whole conflict, that would be the Israeli terror groups who really started all the fighting. However, Palestine and other Arab states extended it by refusing the 1948 UN Partition Plan and starting the 1948 Arab-Israeli war. This caused Palestine to be occupied by Egypt (Gaza), and Jordan (West Bank). Later, Israel started the Six-Day war (1967) and took Gaza, the West Bank, and the Sinai Peninsula and the Golan Heights (even though they had no right to take Sinai and the Golan Heights, let alone Gaza and the West Bank). Then, Israel started forming Jewish settlements in the West Bank and Gaza in order to make sure they would get back territory in the peace deal since parts of the territory would be ethnically Jewish. Syria and Egypt tried to take back this territory in the Yom Kippur War in 1973, but failed. Israel gave back Sinai in 1978, but still occupies the Golan Heights.

To try to summarize instead of going through several decades of history. Israel, to a large extent, still occupies the West Bank and Gaza (however they largely only have control over the borders into Palestine, which allows for Israel to strangle the Palestinian economy to death, which is why Palestine has almost no infrastructure) to this day. Because of this, militant Palestinian groups rose up (alongside more moderate Palestinian protesters who pursued acts of civil disobedience) which used acts of terrorism in order to fight Israel. The main reason there is fighting is because Palestine wishes to have greater autonomy and to be fully recognized as a state (and have the functions of such), but will pursue terrorism to achieve those ends. Whereas some of the more radical (very radical) in Israel wish for the Palestinian territories (specifically the West Bank) to be turned into ethnically Jewish territories, and the more moderate simply wish to curb terrorism (through the use of terrorism, lol).

So, the simple explanation would be that Zionist militancy fueled conflict with other Arab nations (which were fueled with feelings of Arab nationalism). The creation of an ethnically Jewish state in the 1948 UN Partition Plan being the trigger for this conflict. And the events of the Six Day War and the Yom Kippur War further fueling the fire and would later lead to the use of militant Palestinian terrorism in the First and Second Intifadas, which were really the highlights of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.